Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 12, 2013

Happy Birthday Israel video (Israel21c)

Friday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Latma asks to bring back the country we know and Tawil Fadiha compares Israel to the Nazis

Kerry’s quest: Who really wants peace?

What was John Kerry thinking when he asked Turkey’s viscerally anti-Israel and anti-Jewish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to be “a partner” in brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Does he honestly think Hamas’ loyal and enthusiastic supporter, a man who has called Zionism a crime against humanity, could be an honest broker? The State Department spokeswoman confirmed a Turkish newspaper report that Kerry wants Erdogan to play an active role in the peace process, and said Kerry asked Turkey to use its “significant influence with the Palestinians” to encourage Hamas to accept the demands of the International Quartet.

MPs: Erdogan's son doing business in Israel

Turkish opposition members have embarrassed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan by revealing that in the past three years, while the relations between Ankara and Jerusalem were at an all-time low, his son continued doing business with Israel.
The son, Ahmet Burak Erdogan, is the owner of the MB Shipping company, which holds two cargo vessels. One of them, Safran-1, has sailed between Turkish and Israeli ports several times, transferring goods back and forth.

Turkey says terrorists planned to bomb US Embassy, synagogue

Al-Qaeda-linked operatives planned to bomb the US Embassy in Ankara, a synagogue in Istanbul and other sites, Turkish police said on Thursday.
Turkish officials uncovered the plot and arrested 12 people — two Chechens, two Azeris and eight Turks — in February.
The police seized 50 pounds of plastic explosives with detonation systems attached, as well as six laptops and other evidence during a raid on two terrorist cells in Istanbul and Corlu, reported The New York Times.

Caroline Glick: Column One: Moral relativism and jihad

The danger exposed by the cancellation of Geller’s speech and the conferral of honors on the likes of Carter and Waters by mainstream Jewish institutions is daunting. If moral relativism remains the dominant dogma of the American Jewish establishment, the already weakly defended, but still strongly rooted, support for Israel among the rank and file of the American Jewish community will dissipate.

IDF: Mideast being Redrawn along Sunni-Shiite Fault Line

He added that regional shifts have deteriorated governance in areas bordering Israel, noting, "For the first time in decades, Israel has four active borders which could open up from terror attacks."
Kochavi also discussed the changing role of religion in shaping regional alliances. "Today, the Middle East is being redefined into Shiite and Sunni camps," he explained, "which explains things like why Hamas has distanced itself from Iran in recent months and is moving closer to Egypt and Turkey, or why Iran is arming the Shiite minority in Yemen."

23,085 soldiers have fallen protecting Israel

The Defense Ministry released its annual figures of fallen soldiers on Friday morning ahead of Remembrance Day, stating that 92 soldiers had fallen this year and a total of 23,085 have fallen in Israel's wars since 1860.

UC Santa Barbara, in Marathon Hearing, Becomes Latest School to Reject Israel Divestment

“The argument against the bill was pretty multi-faceted, but essentially rested on the fact that there were a bunch of claims in the resolution that were either false, taken out of context, or disputed by independent experts, and so the effect of passing the resolution would be to declare Israel guilty of all these accusations despite all the conflicting evidence,” Samarov said.

Pallies File UN Complaint Against Canada

I bet we're still taken for suckers & Baird gives them another 300 Million
"In a move that could greatly impact the actions of third-party states and companies currently profiting from Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the West Bank, the Palestinian village of Bil’in recently filed a complaint against Canada with the United Nations."

South Africa: Labels for Products from 'Occupied Territories'

The new rules stipulate that goods will no longer carry "Made in Israel" labels but instead will have to be specific about the exact origin of the goods.
Medupe explained that goods coming from Gaza will be labeled Gaza-Israel goods, those made in Judea and Samaria will be labeled West Bank-Israeli goods and imports from eastern Jerusalem will be tagged East Jerusalem-Israeli goods.

Avago buys Israel's CyOptics for $400m

CyOptics is developing next-generation optical components for high-speed transmission of video content. Customers include governments and some of the world's biggest companies. The company is growing rapidly, tripling its sales in the past three years to $210 million in 2012.

Israel set to bag another mega Indian defence deal

Israel seems all set to bag yet another mega defence deal to equip all the 356 infantry battalions of the Indian Army with third-generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). While Russia is far ahead in the lead, Israel is trying to stave off a strong challenge from the US to remain the second largest arms supplier to India.
The Rs 15,000-crore ($2.76 billion USD) project will involve an initial direct acquisition of the man-portable "tank killers", with a strike range of 2.5-km, followed by transfer of technology (ToT) to defence PSU, Bharat Dynamics, for large-scale indigenous manufacture.

Egypt would "love" to see Israel as part of a regional union, says Islamist MP

Say what?

Egyptians “would love” to be part of an Islamic Union model which will bring together not only the Muslim countries but Israel as well to discuss how to solve regional conflicts, a prominent Islamist member of Egyptian parliament told a Turkish television station during a visit to Istanbul this week.

Abdulmawgoud Dardery, head of the Foreign Relations Committee at Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), told Turkey's A9 TV that Egyptians “cannot wait” to see the formation of an Islamic Union model, in which even non-Islamic countries such as Israel, Russia and Armenia take part, according to a press report by the Turkish channel sent to Al Arabiya.

Dardery made the statement in response to a question by Turkish author Adnan Oktar during a talk show on A9 TV. When Oktar asked him about an Islamic union model. which will bring unity to the region Dardery “heartily agreed in principle,” according to the report and said Egyptians “would do whatever it takes on their part to contribute to that,” the report added.

I have a feeling we will be seeing some serious backtracking next week.

Jordanian parliament demands murderer of 7 Jewish schoolgirls be released

From YNet:

An overwhelming 110 members of the Jordanian House of Representatives signed a petition demanding a pardon for a Jordanian soldier who shot and killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997.

Ahmad Musa Mustafa Daqamseh shot the girls during a school fieldtrip in Naharayim, near the Israel-Jordan border, and is currently serving a life sentence.

A number of Jordanian MPs refer to Daqamseh as a hero in this initiative.

This is not the first time there has been a push in Jordan to release the heinous murderer. I reported on earlier attempts in 2008, 2009, 2011 , including from Jordan's justice minister and the head of "human rights" organizations.

Some 31 members of parliament demanded his release in 2009. Now the number is apparently more than triple that.

Yes, in "moderate" Jordan, a soldier who wantonly mows down schoolgirls is considered a "hero" by a large percentage of people.

Memorial to the girls in Naharayim

One person, a Dr. Fares, commented in the Jordanian media by saying that Daqamseh is no hero for killing schoolgirls. Practically every comment afterwards insults him for saying such a thing.

(h/t Josh)

Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Barry Rubin: In Egypt, Pogroms against Christians Have Become Routine

The Brotherhood is running the government; the Salafists are running in the streets. Moderate Muslim Egyptians, like those who run al-Ahram for the time being (as a state newspaper it will soon come under Brotherhood control) are unhappy with the persecution but can do nothing.
Things can only do worse. The world is indifferent; the Western mass media is usually determined to be “even-handed” or to ignore the extent of the situation, preferring to seek alleged oppressors in other, near-by countries.

PMW: Facebook allows Palestinian promotion of hate speech but prevents PMW from exposing it

Following Palestinian Media Watch’s bulletin exposing the PA TV broadcast of a girl reciting a poem referring to Jews as “enemies of Allah, descendants of pigs,” Facebook, like YouTube, decided to remove PMW’s post.

BBC guest champions Hass’ advocacy of violence against Israelis

By providing a platform for Glass to whitewash Hass’ call for what is – let’s be perfectly frank about this – the organized and pre-meditated attempted murder of Israeli civilians, the BBC has rendered itself complicit to that incitement. Although it fairly successfully avoids reporting on the majority of the dozens of incidents in which Israelis are attacked – and sometimes killed – by Palestinian stone-throwers, it would not be too difficult for the BBC to apprise itself of the consequences of such shockingly frequent acts of terror.

US-Palestinian boy faces trial for stone-throwing

"The American government is obligated to do something for us," says father of 14-year-old suspected of stoning cars in W. Bank.

Lawyer: Recognize Victims of ‘Terrorist Rape’

There is a clear trend of Arab men sexually assaulting Jewish girls and women as a form of anti-Israel terrorism, attorney Roni Sadovnik said Wednesday, speaking to Arutz Sheva.
Israel’s courts prefer to treat such crimes as solely criminal in nature rather than as crimes motivated by nationalist hate, she said. Changing the status of such crimes would give victims a wider array of services and assistance.

U.S.: Fayyad Not Going Anywhere, as Far as We Know

The United States on Thursday reacted warily on Thursday to reports that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was poised to offer his resignation to Chairman Mahmoud Abbas after a dispute between the two, AFP reported. Similar reports have surfaced in the past.

'Hamas didn't probe executions of spy suspects'

Rights group says Hamas failed to investigate executions of 7 Palestinians accused of spying for Israel during Gaza operation.

Hamas Claims 'Collaborator' Campaign a Success

"A number of agents turned themselves in," Shahwan said, without giving a number, adding only that they would be "dealt with" according to Palestinian law.
Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel is punishable by death.

Sinai Bedouin kidnap, release Hungarian observer

An Egyptian security official says armed Bedouin tribesmen have kidnapped a Hungarian member of the multinational observer force in Sinai.
The observer was released several hours after the kidnapping, and the kidnappers said they did not know he was a member of the international peacekeeping force.

West has ‘hard evidence’ chemical weapons used in Syria

Diplomats say the West has firm proof that chemical weapons have been deployed at least once over the course of the civil war that has been ravaging Syria for two years.
“In one case, we have hard evidence,” one diplomat was quoted by AFP as saying Thursday. And “there are several examples where we are quite sure that shells with chemicals have been used in a very sporadic way.”

U.S. Envoy: Syria ‘Not Fit to Sit’ on UN Rights Committee

The Geneva-based watchdog group UN Watch congratulated Ambassador Killion and urged UNESCO to finally expel Assad from the panel.
“It is indefensible for the Syrian regime to be allowed to stand as a judge of other countries’ human rights records,” said Ambassador Killion in response to a question by UN Watch, which heads a global campaign of more than 50 parliamentarians, human rights and religious groups calling for Syria’s expulsion.

Video: Screaming Christian woman sexually assaulted on the street in Egypt

I saw this video going viral in some Arabic sites, but MEMRI's translation seems to verify that it is what they said it was - Egyptian Islamist men sexually assaulting a Christian woman on the street in the name of Allah:

Nightmare on Schocken Street - Ha'aretz in serious trouble

Mida (Hebrew) has an extensive report on Ha'aretz' problems in the wake of the Amira Hass debacle.

The article talks about Ha'aretz' firing dozens of workers, dramatic cuts in wages, eliminating editorial meetings, the chief editor losing control of his writers, and above all the deterioration of journalistic norms in favor of pursuing sensationalism and radical propaganda.

Interviewing several former employees, Mida heard about the shocking loss of journalistic standards at the "New York Times of Israel." Even so, the Hass article is seen as crossing a red line, a new low for the paper.

Mida also goes over some of the embarrassing mistakes made over the past year, such as Gideon Levy's purposeful misinterpretation of a poll indicating Israel "apartheid" and Ha'aretz' scoop that the White House has a secured telephone line to Dennis Ross, a claim ridiculed by Jeffrey Goldberg.

Someone should translate this entire article.

Today's UN hypocrisy

Today Israel re-opened the Kerem Shalom crossing after closing it on Monday in response to rocket attacks.

On Wednesday, the UN criticized the closing:

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. James W. Rawley, expressed serious concern regarding the impact of these restrictions on the civilian population. "These measures are resulting in the depletion of stocks of essential supplies, including basic foodstuffs and cooking gas, and undermine the livelihoods and rights of many vulnerable Gazan families”, said Mr. Rawley. “If these restrictions continue, the effect upon the Gaza population will be serious".

Notice that the closure did not affect a single Gazan. The stockpiles of goods were somewhat depleted but they were adequate to ensure that Gazans still had their basic needs met as they have been.

Yet the UN itself last week stopped giving food and other services directly to Gazans in response to riots at UNRWA offices and distribution centers. If anyone was engaging in collective punishment, it was UNRWA.

But, hey, criticizing Israel is so much easier than justifying your own hypocrisy.

Your tax dollars at work: $20 million "Palestine Museum"

From Ma'an:

Palestinian officials on Thursday joined a ceremony to lay the cornerstone for a new museum of Palestinian culture, history and society in Birzeit near Ramallah.

Organizers said the museum would provide Palestinians with "a valuable source of information on Palestine and its history".

The museum is to be constructed in two phases, the first of which is slated for completion by the end of 2014. It is expected to cost some $20 million.

"The museum will not only be for Palestinians but will reach out to the whole world through an advanced digital network," project manager Omar al-Qattan said as ground was broken on the new venture.

"It will be more than a traditional building with archaeological relics. We are looking at an institution that will transcend all boundaries -- geographical and political," he added.

There is nothing wrong with building a museum, even if it supports a narrative that is at odds with history. (In video, they say that ancient Palestinian culture is "one of the most infuential [sic] cultures the world has ever seen." Well, yes, if you mean the culture of the Jews who lived in an area later called Palestine.)

In fact, "Palestinian culture" is mostly a fiction. There have been some specific examples of local culture - costumes in Bethlehem, soap in Nablus - that have been collected ex post facto into a collective "Palestinian" culture in order to further a national myth that is a mere decades old. It could hardly be described as influential on a world scale, or even in a pan-Arab scale. From the Arab perspective, remember, "Palestine" was really considered southern Syria up until the early 20th century.

Be that as it may, Palestinian Arabs have every right to build whatever they want. That is not the problem.

When museums are built in the rest of the world, they are funded by private donors and foundations, with perhaps the aid of local government. However, this museum in Bir Zeit - like most other Palestinian Arab initiatives - is using Western government funds.

The major funder is called "The Welfare Association." Despite its universal sounding name, it is dedicated solely to Palestinian Arab projects.

Its money comes from "the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, World Bank, EU, Islamic Development Bank, Arab Monetary Fund, Kuwait Fund, AGFUND, Ford Foundation, and the governments of Austria, Canada, France, Italy, and Switzerland, among others."

Apparently, the West has become so enamored with the Palestinian Arab cause that it believes that propagating the PalArab national myth is worth millions of Western dollars. Yet as we saw recently, the Palestinian Arabs knowingly push this myth not only to achieve a unity that has eluded Arab residents of Palestine for centuries, but also to actively battle against the undeniable facts of Jewish culture in the same land. (In this case, it looks more like they want to subsume Jewish culture rather than deny it altogether.)

It is highly questionable whether it is appropriate for the West to spend so much money and effort to build a national myth for a nation they want desperately to exist. (How much Western money is earmarked for Kurdish or Armenian culture?)

It far worse, however, when that same money is being used deliberately to erase or marginalize the culture of a real nation that has existed for thousands of years.

Wikileaks: an interview with a Black September leader

A couple of days ago, Wikileaks released 1.7 million diplomatic cables from 1973-76, and many others have been noting interesting ones. (See this excellent analysis by Lee Smith in Tablet.)

Here's one I found from March 1973:

1. US NEWSMAN HAS GIVEN EMBASSY ON CONFIDENTIAL BASIS TEXT PURPORTED BUT UNRELEASED INTERVIEW "SOMEWHERE IN GERMANY" WITH BSO MEMBER BY GERMAN TV NEWSMAN.

2. DURING INTERVIEW, BSO MEMBER STATES

(A) NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN AL FATAH AND BLACK SEPTEMBER,

(B) BSO RECEIVES $80-85 MILLION ANNUALLY FROM LIBYA ($30 MILLION), SAUDI ARABIA ($15 MILLION), GULF STATES ($10-12 MILLION), ALGERIA ($5 MILLION) AND PRIVATE SOURCES. STATED EGYPT AND SYRIA PAY NOTHING,

(C) ARAFAT RECEIVED $5 MILLION " BONUS" FROM LIBYA FOR MUNICH OPERATION AND HAS PRIVATE BANK ACCOUNT IN SWITZERLAND,

(D) 10-15 EUROPEANS INCLUDING GERMANS ARE PART OF BSO, AND

(E) BSO WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION COME FROM USSR, PRC, EGYPT, SYRIA AND ALGERIA.

Keep in mind that at this time, Arafat strenuously denied any connection between Fatah and Black September, which was responsible for a string of terror attacks (including killing Americans in Khartoum.)

The State Department knew very well that Arafat was lying. Even these cable show that clearly (here's one where Idi Amin stated that Arafat assured him that Black September would not disrupt an OAU meeting.)

Given all this, the interview sounds like the real deal.

An anti-Jewish political initiative disguised as a cultural festival

Ma'an (Arabic) reports on a spring festival scheduled to take place in in Ramadeen, near Hebron, to celebrate the culture of the Bedouins. It will showcase foods, costumes and customs of the Bedouin people.

The PA government is sponsoring this festival.

Why?

The article explains the reason specifically: not because there is any love of the Bedouin culture in Ramallah, but because this festival helps fight the idea that Jews have anything to do with the area.

The Hebron Governor said that the presence of participants from community and civil and international institutions sends a strong message to support the citizens in the face of occupation and make them feel more confident to fight and prevail over the Jews in asserting our cultural heritage. He added that these cultural festivals and heritage are meant to defeat the Jews' claim that this is their land and is part of the political battle being fought by the Palestinian people for freedom and independence, particularly in this location on the borders of the Green Line and near the settlements and the wall.

This is a purely political initiative is meant solely to delegitimize Jewish history, but it is disguised as a cultural festival!

They aren't even trying to hide their agenda.

The article goes on to say that this program is funded by a number of NGOs, including the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and Action Aid.

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Enough Said: The False Scholarship of Edward Said

Said rolled American racism and European colonialism into one mélange of white oppression of darker-skinned peoples. He was not the only thinker to have forged this amalgam, but his unique further contribution was to represent “Orientals” as the epitome of the dark-skinned; Muslims as the modal Orientals; Arabs as the essential Muslims; and, finally, Palestinians as the ultimate Arabs. Abracadabra—Israel was transformed from a redemptive refuge from two thousand years of persecution to the very embodiment of white supremacy.

WikiLeaks’ Insight Into Arafat The State Department cables show that the Palestinian leader was a key asset to the U.S. during the Kissinger years

It’s not clear if the Israelis entirely understood how close the Americans were to Arafat and his outfit. For instance, Israel long believed that Arafat’s intelligence chief Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the masterminds of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic games, was a CIA asset. The truth is that the so-called Red Prince meant much more to the U.S.-Arafat relationship, serving as one of their key intermediaries and a symbol of the nature of their relationship.

Wiesel: Ahmadinejad Should be Arrested and Indicted

Jewish author and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel has said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be arrested and indicted for intent to commit a crime against humanity.
In a recent interview with the German-based dpa, the 84-year-old Holocaust survivor said that the Iranian leader is serious when he says Israel should be wiped off the map.
“Ahmadinejad has two goals: one goal is to become nuclear and the second goal is to destroy the State of Israel. The fact is he means it,” Wiesel told dpa.

Ireland Pressed to Affirm Opposition to Israel Boycotts

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called on the government of Ireland to publicly reiterate its opposition to boycotts of Israel in response to the decision by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland to adopt an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

Hungarian far-rightists to stage ‘anti-Zionist’ revenge rally

A far-right Hungarian priest said an “anti-Zionist” demonstration will be held in Budapest on the first day of the World Jewish Congress’s General Assembly.

Poland Drops Probe Into Artist Who Used Shoah Victims' Ashes

Prosecutors decided not to charge him with stealing human remains or graves because the statute of limitations had expired, Beata Syk-Jankowska of the prosecutor's office in the eastern city of Lublin told AFP.

Police Apprehend Mezuzah Burning Suspect

According to the New York Times, Rubin Ublies was taken into custody Wednesday in connection with the burning of 11 mezuzahs inside an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish apartment complex in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on Monday, which was Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Portuguese parliament to vote on citizenship for descendants of expelled Jews

Popular support for the motion stems from a desire to “make amends” for a dark historical chapter in Portugal – a country that Carp describes as being “virtually free of anti-Semitism.” Some also hope the law would attract investments by Jews seeking to settle in Portugal, one of the European Union’s most vulnerable economies.

Petition: Students Against Bigotry

Students and Alumni of North American Colleges call for an end to anti-Israel bullying and bigotry on campuses—and call for honest, constructive dialogue and actions
Video: Stop UCSB Divestment NOW!

Technion named 6th in world for entrepreneurship, innovation

The Technion was one of only two of the top 10 universities worldwide outside the US and Europe. (The other is the National University of Singapore.) The two top schools in the survey were MIT and Stanford University.
The survey also cited the Technion and Imperial College London among the “emerging giants whose reputation had grown considerably in recent years.”

Film documents US comics in Israel
Biannual tours of American comedians are a fish-out-of-water experience that ‘produces the best laughs’

“It’s sort of enough that every movie out of Israel is either negative or about the Israeli-Arab conflict,” said Liberman, a Los-Angeles-based comedian who brings American comedians to Israel twice a year (and who was interviewed by The Times of Israel at length in October). “We wanted to get one more movie out there that shows people having a good time, because that’s what I experience.”
“Caution: Comics Crossing” will offer an insider’s glance at the bi-annual Comedy for Koby tour, joining Liberman and his fellow comics as they tour Israel, discuss jokes, timing and the Israeli audience.

Hamas blames - who else? - Israel for Egyptian police massacre

From Egypt Independent:

Hamas has accused Israel of responsbility for the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers last August, and denied it gave the Egyptian authorities names of Palestinians involved in the incident.

Last month, the state-run Al-Ahram Al-Arabi magazine published a list of Hamas members it said were behind the attack.

“Investigation by us and the Egyptian authorities revealed that no Palestinians from the Gaza Strip or outside it were involved in the incident,” claimed Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau. “We do not rule out [the possibility] that Israel deployed jihadist groups in Sinai to carry out the operation.”

If Hamas was really innocent, they would just say that as far as they know some jihadist groups were responsible.

Conversely, if Hamas is guilty, they would reflexively make up a bizarre "Israel did it" theory to distract from having the spotlight on themselves as much as possible.

Miftah blood libel update

It has been over two weeks since Miftah published its blood libel in Arabic, and it still has refused to apologize in that same language to those who read it. Indeed, the Arabic readers can still read Miftah's attack on me, calling my reporting a "smear campaign" (even its English attack on me remains on its site, even after its belated English apology.)

Since then, the story continues on.

American Thinker mentioned it, noting that Miftah's founder Hanan Ashrawi was hardly as moderate as she represents herself to the West.

In spite of her self-portrait as a "moderate," Ashrawi has been an exponent of some of the main tenets of the familiar Palestinian narrative. She was the highly articulate official spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Process, 1991-1993. At the United Nations Durban I Conference on August 28, 2001 she said, "I represent a narrative of exclusion, denial, racism, and national victimization." She spoke of her heavy heart "leaving behind a nation in captivity held hostage to an ongoing Nakba, as the most intricate and pervasive expression of persistent colonialism, apartheid, racism, and victimization." Israeli settlements, she declared, leads to "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank.

However, without mentioning me, it says:

The criticism of the article in Miftah and consequent reluctant "apology" by the website is significant. It illustrates that a rapid response by independent and courageous media to inaccurate statements and prejudiced accusations can and sometimes does result in rectifying them and shaming the accusers.

The Jerusalem Post belatedly reported on the issue today, concentrating on the NGOs that fund Miftah:

Writers for MIFTAH – a nonprofit founded in 1998 by Hanan Ashrawi, a vocal advocate for the Palestinian cause who is well regarded by Western officials – resurfaced a centuries-old smear over the Passover holiday on their Arabic website that accuses Jews of using Christian blood in the preparation of Passover matza.

Invocation of the blood libel shocked Jewish groups after it was picked up in English by a blog called the Elder of Ziyon.

The collective pressure from these groups over several days was apparently enough to force a retraction from MIFTAH – only after the nonprofit initially refused to apologize.

But the true shock has come from MIFTAH’s benefactors, who have struggled to distance their financial support over several years from the organization’s more extremist activities.

The governments of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and Norway, among other EU members, have provided funding for MIFTAH at least through 2011, according to NGO Monitor, which tracks the financing of major nongovernmental organizations.

And the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is funded through an act of US Congress, has provided MIFTAH with nearly $180,000 between 2007 and 2012.

“The whole funding process is very cloudy – it’s not very transparent at all,” said Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “The NED didn’t do their due diligence.

Hanan Ashrawi was able to sell [MIFTAH’s] activities as pro-peace and pro-civil society, and they didn’t look to see what kind of organization they’re running. It was probably based more than anything on personal connections, which is obviously a problem.”

Made aware of these concerns, the NED told The Jerusalem Post that its financial support for MIFTAH was directed toward its young leaders program, and was never directed toward its website operations.

NED’s spokesman noted that additional funding for MIFTAH was not granted this year by the NED board of directors.

But when asked how the NED tracked its funding as earmarked for youth programs, as opposed to its website operations, they had no additional comment.

(I do not understand why JPost uses all-caps for Miftah. It is not an English acronym.)

NGO Monitor revisited the issue today as well, adding the responses from three of the Miftah's funders: NED, UNESCO and Oxfam.

A couple of German media outlets also covered the story, concentrating on the funding of Miftah by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Heinrich Boell Stiftung German organizations.

So far, I have not seen any responses from them, nor from the governments of Ireland, Norway, Austria or any of the other funders of Miftah. You can see their email addresses and Twitter accounts at the end of http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-cant-hanan-ashrawis-miftah.htmlthis post.

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Why Salam Fayyad Stands No Chance against Fatah by Khaled Abu Toameh

The Fatah leaders are yearning for the days of Yasser Arafat, when they were able to steal international aid earmarked for helping Palestinians. The Palestinians' problem with Fayyad is that he did not sit even one day on an Israeli prison. For them, graduating from an Israeli prisons even more important that going to any university.

Efrat Protesters: Stop Arab Rock Throwing Now

Dozens of Efrat residents, along with activists from the Women in Green group, demonstrated Wednesday afternoon at the northern entrance to Efrat in Gush Etzion. The protest, part of the effort by Judea and Samaria residents to “take back the roads” and make them safe from terrorist rock-throwers and gunmen, was attended by dozens of people who have had enough of the ongoing attacks on drivers, a spokesperson for the protesters said.

CIF Watch: Harriet Sherwood refers to jailed Palestinians who Abbas wants released as “political prisoners”

Sherwood was, intentionally or otherwise, legitimizing the Palestinian narrative which glorifies terrorists and consistently characterizes even those prisoners convicted of the most gruesome crimes as ‘victims’ of Israeli oppression.

Donnison absolves Hamas of responsibility for hair cut crackdown

Donnison’s all too obvious attempt to absolve Hamas of responsibility for this latest bout of curtailment of basic personal freedoms in the Gaza Strip once again raises serious questions regarding his ability to report on the subject of that organisation and its actions impartially.

Poll: 90.9% of Palestinians Believe Hamas and Fatah Should Reach Reconciliation Deal

A new poll released by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center showed that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians (90.3%) believe that Hamas and Fatah should pursue national reconciliation even if this leads to the United States and Israel imposing sanctions on the Palestinian Arabs.

Hamas eyes bigger regional role

Re-elected last week, Mashaal will try to deepen ties with regional powers Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, which have already given money or political support to Hamas-run Gaza and could be conduits to the US and Europe, several leading Hamas figures said. Mashaal will also push for a power-sharing deal with his Western-backed Palestinian rival, President Mahmoud Abbas.

Egypt nabs 4 men smuggling arms and blueprints into Gaza

The suspects were captured near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and “were attempting to smuggle blueprints and designs for Egyptian police, army and intelligence facilities,” an Egyptian security official told Ma’an News on Wednesday evening. He added that the men had ”automatic weapons, ammunition, bombs, landmines, and anti-aircraft shells.”

Report: Egyptian Army Tortured, Killed Civilians During Uprising

Egypt's armed forces participated in forced disappearances, torture and killings across the country during the 2011 uprising which led to the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak, even as military leaders publicly declared their neutrality, according to a leaked presidential report on revolution-era crimes.

12 Hizbullah Members Killed Near Damascus

Twelve members of the Hizbullah terrorist group have been killed in an ambush near Damascus, Al Arabiya reported Tuesday, quoting sources close to the Lebanese movement.
More than 20 other Hizbullah members, part of a military brigade deployed in Syria to defend President Bashar al-Assad, were also wounded in the attack, the sources said.

We can’t designate Hezbollah a terror group, Cypriot minister says

Citing its friendship with Lebanon, Cyprus said it was unwilling to unilaterally declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization, despite the fact that a Limassol court sent a member of the Shiite group to prison for his role in a plot to kill Israelis two weeks ago.